Egyptian Candidate Threatens Israel with Iranian Axis

Israel may face a new Iranian-Egyptian threat if presidential candidate Hisham El-Bastawisi wins his bid to succeed Mubarak.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 5/13/2012, 3:51 PM

Posters for presidential candidate Hisham Al-Bastawisi in Cairo

Reuters

Israel may face a new Iranian-Egyptian threat if presidential candidate Hisham El-Bastawisi winds his bid to succeed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose ouster he encouraged.

Backed by the left-wing Tagammu party, El-Bastawisi said on Saturday that building good relations with Iran would be one of his highest priorities. Israel already faces a northern “axis of evil” by the alliance between Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

El-Bastawisi also promised to revise the Camp David Accords to allow the army to increase an armed presence in the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian website Ahram reported.

El-Bastawisi is a prominent reformist judge who helped lead opposition for judiciary independence under the regime of Mubarak, who now is on trial for mass murder of demonstrators in last year’s popular uprising.

Regardless of the outcome of the Egyptian prudential elections later this month, the new Cairo regime is bound to be more anti-Israel than it was under Mubarak.

Muslim Brotherhood candidate Abdel Moneim Abul-Fotouh said in a televised debate that Israel is an “enemy country.” The other top candidate, former foreign minister and Arab League Chief Amr Moussa, said earlier this month, “The Camp David agreements do not exist anymore….The purpose of the agreement with Israel was to establish an independent Palestinian government, whereas today we are talking about an independent Palestinian state.”